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“No one in the estate can identify the arrested assassin of Barrister Fadipe.”

The assailant who stabbed a human rights lawyer to death at the deceased’s home on Thursday night has been transferred to the Special Anti-Robbery Squad in Ikeja, Lagos, for questioning, PREMIUM TIMES has learnt.

Mr. Fadipe, 51, was stabbed in the neck by the yet to be named assailant after the latter used the lawyer’s son who had gone to switch on their generator to gain entrance into the house.

A police officer at the scene of the incident told PREMIUM TIMES on Saturday that investigation into the murder has since commenced to determine whether it was armed robbery or assassination.

“The suspect has been taken to SARS (Special Anti-Robbery Squad) office (in Ikeja). His shot leg will be treated first before he can be questioned,” said the officer who did not want to be named because he was not authorized to speak on the matter.

“No one in the estate can identify the arrested assassin of Barrister Fadipe, but he confessed to OPC men who shot him while escaping that he had been hiding behind the fence for over an hour”, the officer added.

Leye Fadipe, the deceased’s brother, said that the family was still in shock and cannot link the death of the lawyer to anyone.

“It’s an assassination but we cannot finger anyone and we don’t know the motive” he said.

The members of the Harmony Estate Community Development Association, CDA, whom the deceased served as Chairman, refused to speak to PREMIUM TIMES about the incident.

However, security in the estate, where the deceased’s family lives, has been tightened following the incident.

Security men at the entrance to the estate now screen and search visitors before allowing them entry.

Efforts to speak with Ngozi Braide, the Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, were unsuccessful.

Phone calls and text messages to Ms. Braide were not responded to.

Until his death, Mr. Fadipe, a native of Ile-Ife, Osun State, and a 1987 law graduate of the University of Lagos, was a Visiting Member of the Editorial Board of The Guardian Newspapers.

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